


say a word, do it soon

by Anthusiasm (HalfwayDecentFanfiction)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:07:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26868655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalfwayDecentFanfiction/pseuds/Anthusiasm
Summary: A game of tag goes awry on the meteor.Set during the second version of the journey through the Furthest Ring.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 2
Kudos: 48
Collections: Comfortween 2020





	say a word, do it soon

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is inspired by Dave's conversation with Dirk about Bro, where he lists "blood" as one of the things he's now afraid of.
> 
> Prompt: Dealing with bleeding, blood loss, cleaning blood from someone, drinking blood.

“You heard the Mayor!” said Dave. “Blindfolds on!”

Karkat, Dave, and the Mayor were playing tag, at Dave’s suggestion. When they started, they quickly realized that Dave had never played tag before, and only had a vague knowledge of the rules from TV shows. Karkat tried to contribute by laying out the rules of troll tag, but it involved a lot more eye-gouging than anyone was comfortable with. The Mayor was, as always, happy to do whatever, so the game ended up being a combination of both games (with the eye-gouging in troll tag replaced by blindfolds). Every few minutes, Dave or Karkat would improvise a rule, then swear up and down it was an integral part of their version of the game.

Karkat slipped his blindfold on and blundered down the hall.

“Get ready,” he heard Dave yelling behind him. “I’m about to tag the absolute fucking shit out of you. I’m about to tag you so hard you feel like a shirt on the clearance rack of a shitty outlet mall. I’m about to—”

Then, he heard a thump, and a yelp. And then, nothing

Karkat spun around, pulling his blindfold off. He knew something was wrong when Davedidn’t start yelling about how taking off the blindfold was a violation of the sacred human art of tag or some other fucking horseshit. It very quickly became evident that Dave had crashed into a support beam and fallen on his ass. His eyes were wide, and blood dripped from his nose. Karkat took a deep, stabilizing breath and mentally berated himself for being enough of a dumbass to think that Dave had gotten seriously hurt. What, did he think tripping over your own feet in a fucking game of tag was enough to qualify for a heroic death? _Get it together, Vantas,_ he thought.

“Come on,” said Karkat said, extending his hand to help Dave up.

Dave flinched backward. Karkat could see that Dave’s left hand was shaking slightly.

“Dave?” said Karkat. “It’s a fucking nosebleed, Mr. Cool Guy. Mr. Look At My Enormous Fucking Cool Guy Dick. Come on, we’ve got a game of tag to finish.” Karkat expected Dave to laugh, maybe insult him back, but Dave didn’t move. He just kept looking ahead with a weird blank look in his eyes. Karkat had never seen Dave like this. It was unsettling. He knelt down.

“Hey,” he said. “I didn’t mean what I said about your cool guy dick. Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Dave said in a flat voice.

“Nope,” said Karkat. “You look like someone just killed a hoofbeast in front of you. Let’s try again. What’s wrong? Did you hit your head or something?”

“I’m not hurt,” said Dave, and what got to Karkat was how quiet Dave sounded. Dave had an annoyingly loud voice—everyone made fun of Karkat whenever he brought it up, because apparently he was “being a hypocrite,” but it was true. It was like he was constantly trying to fill up the room. Now, though, his voice was soft, fragile almost. Like he was trying to take up as little space as possible.

“I don’t like blood,” Dave said, and his voice trembled slightly. “That’s all.”

Karkat tried not to work himself up into a panic. Obviously, something had happened to Dave. Maybe it was during the game, maybe it was before, but something very bad had happened, and now Dave had a problem with blood. It was all Karkat could do not to shake Dave by the shoulders and demand to know exactly what had happened. Exactly who he needed to hunt down and—well, maybe he wouldn’t be able to kill whoever it was, but he could give them the longest damn lecture of their lives.

But he looked at Dave’s face, his wide, staring eyes, and knew he couldn’t. Whatever it was, Dave didn’t want to talk about it. And Karkat wasn’t going to force him. That wasn’t what Dave needed.

Instead, he took a deep breath, and focused on what he could actually do.

“Okay,’ he said. “I can help. See?” He raised his hand.

Dave flinched back again, with a sharp gasp.

“Shit,” said Karkat. “Listen, I promise this is going to help. All right? I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t going to help.”

Dave closed his eyes and nodded.

Karkat slowly raised his right hand and rested it on Dave’s shoulder, steadying him. Dave's eyes flew open, and he locked eyes with Karkat. He let out a long sigh, like he was relieved, and there was a vulnerable, almost pleading look in his eyes. He looked pathetically grateful that Karkat was touching him, and Karkat gently rubbed his fingers against Dave’s shoulder in answer. Then, Karkat slowly raised his left hand. He didn’t touch Dave’s face, just flexed his fingers and drew the blood to them.

As soon as it was off Dave’s face, Karkat flung the blood as far as he could. He didn’t really care where it went as long as it was away.

As soon as it was gone, Dave relaxed. He fell forward, his forehead bumping Karkat’s shoulder. Karkat froze for a moment, afraid to disturb him.

Then he jerked his head away.

“Thanks, buddy,” he said, in a casual tone that felt forced. “I think I’m done with tag for now.”

“Okay,” said Karkat.

Dave turned to walk away. Karkat was suddenly furious. He wasn’t going to let Dave get away that easily. So he grabbed Dave and pulled him into a tight hug.

Dave relaxed, seeming almost to melt in Karkat’s embrace, and stayed that way for a second, two, three. Then he pulled away. Refusing to meet Karkat’s eyes, he shuffled away.

Karkat watched him go, unable to help feeling deeply embarrassed. He knew that Dave had needed that hug. He also knew that this guaranteed that Dave would never speak of this again.


End file.
